Obama: 'A jury has spoken'

President Barack Obama on Sunday waded back into the racially charged Trayvon Martin case, making clear that he accepts a jury’s acquittal of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Martin’s death and calling for calm reflection.

Zimmerman’s acquittal has sparked new calls — from members of Congress to civil rights leaders — for the Department of Justice to intervene and possibly pursue charges. A statement from the Department of Justice late Sunday afternoon said federal prosecutors will evaluate the evidence and decide whether intervention is warranted. But in a statement released nearly 18 hours after the jury’s verdict, Obama made no mention of the Justice Department.

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“I know this case has elicited strong passions,” the president said. “And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken.”

Obama’s unusual statement at the conclusion of a murder trial illustrates just how inflamed the feelings over Martin’s killing have become. The case has sparked a national debate over profiling, civil rights and the Florida Stand Your Ground law, with conservatives praising the outcome as a just verdict and many civil rights leaders vowing to continue to make their case in court.

A short time after Obama released his statement, the Department of Justice also weighed in, saying prosecutors would continue to evaluate the evidence.

“Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction, and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the department’s policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial,” a department spokesman said.

Zimmerman was acquitted Saturday night in a state trial of the fatal 2012 shooting. The Constitution forbids retrial under the same charge, what is known as “double jeopardy,” but courts have ruled that federal and state prosecutions are distinct and, therefore, permissible.

In the hours following the reading of the verdict, NAACP President Ben Jealous started a petition calling on the department to open a civil rights case against Zimmerman, who shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin as he walked through the Sanford, Fla., gated community where he was staying.

“The most fundamental of civil rights — the right to life — was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin,” Jealous wrote in the petition addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.

“It feels so often that our young people have to fear the bad guys and the good guys, the robbers and the cops, and the self-appointed community watch volunteers,” Jealous said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I think the Justice Department’s going to take a look at this,” Reid said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I think that’s good. That’s our system. It’s gotten better, not worse.”

The racial element to the case – Martin was an unarmed black teenager who was shot by Zimmerman, a white Hispanic — could make the path to formal Justice Department charges, Jealous suggested.

“Federal criminal charges under the James Byrd hate crime bill. What you’re going to have to do there is show that race was a factor in his decision making, and there seems to be plenty of evidence that suggests that race was a factor,” Jealous said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “He called 911 a lot about a young black man that he suspected of being dangerous.”

Race was rarely mentioned at the Florida trial, despite the furor over race relations that the case sparked.